Keeping zones open with intermediate padding

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11656984-B2
Application number	US-202117455887-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 19, 2021
Priority date	Apr 20, 2020
Publication date	May 23, 2023
Grant date	May 23, 2023

Abstract

The present disclosure generally relates to methods of operating storage devices. The storage device comprises a controller and a media unit divided into a plurality of zones. Data associated with one or more first commands is written to a first portion of a first zone. Upon a predetermined amount of time passing, dummy data is written to a second portion of the first zone to fill the first zone to a zone capacity. Upon receiving one or more second commands to write data, a second zone is allocated and opened, and the data associated with the one or more second commands is written to a first portion of the second zone. The data associated with the one or more first commands is then optionally re-written to a second portion of the second zone to fill the second zone to a zone capacity, and the first zone is erased.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A storage device, comprising:
a memory device, wherein a capacity of the memory device is divided into a plurality of zones; and
a controller coupled to the memory device, the controller configured to:
write dummy data to a partially filled first zone of the plurality of zones to fill the first zone to a zone capacity;
upon receiving one or more commands to write data to the first zone, open a second zone of the plurality of zones and write the data associated with the one or more commands to a first portion of the second zone; and
re-write the data associated with the partially filled first zone to a second portion of the second zone.

2. The storage device of claim 1 , wherein the first zone is erased after the data associated with the partially filled first zone is re-written to the second portion of the second zone.

3. The storage device of claim 1 , wherein the dummy data comprises sentinel values.

4. The storage device of claim 1 , wherein the dummy data comprises internal drive code for unwritten data.

5. The storage device of claim 1 , wherein writing the dummy data to the partially filled first zone switches the first zone to a closed and active state.

6. The storage device of claim 1 , wherein the controller comprises a timer.

7. The storage device of claim 1 , wherein the data stored in the first zone is stored in a non-sequential order.

8. A storage device, comprising:
a memory device, wherein a capacity of the memory device is divided into a plurality of zones; and
a controller coupled to the memory device, the controller configured to:
determine a predetermined amount of time has passed since receiving a first command to write data to a first zone of the plurality of zones;
upon receiving one or more second commands to write data to the first zone, open a second zone of the plurality of zones and write the data associated with the one or more second commands to the second zone; and
re-write the data associated with the first command written to the first zone to a second portion of the second zone.

9. The storage device of claim 8 , wherein the controller is further configured to: write dummy data to the first zone to fill the first zone to a zone capacity upon determining the predetermined amount of time has passed.

10. The storage device of claim 8 , wherein the predetermined amount of time is a function whether the memory device is SLC, MLC, TLC, or QLC.

11. The storage device of claim 8 , wherein the controller is further configured to: erase the first zone upon re-writing the data associated with the first command to the second zone.

12. The storage device of claim 8 , wherein the controller is configured to recognize dummy data as not being user data, XOR data, parity data, or metadata.

13. The storage device of claim 8 , wherein the predetermined amount of time is between about 15 minutes to about 7 days.

14. The storage device of claim 8 , wherein each zone of the plurality of zones has a same capacity.

15. A storage device, comprising:
memory means, wherein a capacity of the memory means is divided into a plurality of zones; and
a controller coupled to the memory means, the controller configured to:
write data associated with one or more first commands to a first portion of a first zone of the plurality of zones, and wherein a second portion of the first zone remains available to write data to;
upon a timer expiring a first time, write dummy data to the second portion of the first zone to fill the first zone to a zone capacity;
upon receiving one or more second commands to write data to the first zone, open a second zone of the plurality of zones and write the data associated with the one or more second commands to a first portion of the second zone;
re-write the data associated with the one or more first commands written to the first portion of the first zone to a second portion of the second zone;
upon the timer expiring a second time, write dummy data to a third portion of the second zone to fill the second zone to a zone capacity;
upon receiving one or more third commands to write data to the first zone, open a third zone of the plurality of zones and write the data associated with the one or more third commands to a first portion of the third zone;
re-write the data associated with the one or more first commands written to the second portion of the second zone to a second portion of the third zone; and
re-write the data associated with the one or more second commands written to the first portion of the second zone to a third portion of the third zone.

16. The storage device of claim 15 , wherein the controller is further configured to: erase the first zone upon re-writing the data associated with the one or more first commands to the second portion of the second zone.

17. The storage device of claim 15 , wherein the controller is further configured to: erase the second zone upon re-writing the data associated with the one or more first commands to the second portion of the third zone and re-writing the data associated with the one or more second commands to the third portion of the third zone.

18. The storage device of claim 15 , wherein the timer is set to expire after a predetermined amount of time, and wherein the predetermined amount of time is between about 15 minutes to about 7 days.

19. The storage device of claim 15 , wherein writing the dummy data to the second portion of the first zone switches the first zone to a closed and active state, and wherein writing the dummy data to the third portion of the second zone switches the second zone to the closed and active state.

20. The storage device of claim 15 , wherein re-writing the data associated with the one or more first commands to the second portion of the third zone and re-writing the data associated with the one or more second commands to the third portion of the third zone causes the data written to the third zone to be stored out of sequential order.

Assignees

• Western Digital Tech Inc

Inventors

• Bennett Alan D
• Parker Liam
• Helmick Daniel L

Classifications

• G06F3/0604

  Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management · CPC title

• G06F3/0679

  Non-volatile semiconductor memory device, e.g. flash memory, one time programmable memory [OTP] · CPC title

• G06F3/0626

  Reducing size or complexity of storage systems · CPC title

• G06F12/0246 Primary

  in block erasable memory, e.g. flash memory · CPC title

• G06F3/0614

  Improving the reliability of storage systems · CPC title